National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Program Center Vascular Plant Inventory of Mount Rainier National Park Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCCN/NRTR—2010/347 ON THE COVER Mount Rainier and meadow courtesy of 2007 Mount Rainier National Park Vegetation Crew Vascular Plant Inventory of Mount Rainier National Park Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCCN/NRTR—2010/347 Regina M. Rochefort North Cascades National Park Service Complex 810 State Route 20 Sedro-Woolley, Washington 98284 June 2010 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Natural Resource Program Center Fort Collins, Colorado The National Park Service, Natural Resource Program Center publishes a range of reports that address natural resource topics of interest and applicability to a broad audience in the National Park Service and others in natural resource management, including scientists, conservation and environmental constituencies, and the public. The Natural Resource Technical Report Series is used to disseminate results of scientific studies in the physical, biological, and social sciences for both the advancement of science and the achievement of the National Park Service mission. The series provides contributors with a forum for displaying comprehensive data that are often deleted from journals because of page limitations. All manuscripts in the series receive the appropriate level of peer review to ensure that the information is scientifically credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the intended audience, and designed and published in a professional manner. This report received informal peer review by subject-matter experts who were not directly involved in the collection, analysis, or reporting of the data. Views, statements, findings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect views and policies of the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use by the National Park Service. This report is available from the North Coast and Cascades Network website, http://science.nature.nps.gov/im/units/nccn/reportpubs.cfm and the Natural Resource Publications Management website (http://www.nature.nps.gov/publications/NRPM). Please cite this publication as: Rochefort, R. M. 2010. Vascular plant inventory of Mount Rainier National Park. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCCN/NRTR—2010/347. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. NPS 105/104280, June 2010 ii Contents Page Figures............................................................................................................................................ iv Tables .............................................................................................................................................. v Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... vi Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Methods........................................................................................................................................... 3 Data mining ............................................................................................................................. 3 Field based survey approaches ................................................................................................ 3 Sensitive plant species surveys ............................................................................................ 3 Under-surveyed areas ......................................................................................................... 3 Results ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Data mining ............................................................................................................................. 5 Field based survey approaches ................................................................................................ 7 Sensitive plant species surveys ............................................................................................ 7 Under-surveyed areas ......................................................................................................... 7 Discussion ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Literature Cited ............................................................................................................................. 11 Appendix A. Checklist of ferns and fern allies in Mount Rainier National Park ......................... 13 Appendix B. Checklist of Forbs of Mount Rainier National Park ................................................ 17 Appendix C. Checklist of grasses, sedges, and rushes of Mount Rainier National Park .............. 35 Appendix D. Checklist of shrubs and vines of Mount Rainier National Park .............................. 41 Appendix E. Checklist of Trees of Mount Rainier National Park ............................................... 44 Appendix F. Guide to abbreviations used to describe wetland indicator status1 ......................... 46 Appendix G. Plant species or herbarium specimens in need of further documentation ............... 47 iii Figures Page Figure 1. Locations of seven parks within the North Coast and Cascades Network of Parks. ...... 2 Figure 2. Map illustrating locations of plant collections in Mount Rainier National Park ............ 4 Figure 3. Herbarium specimen of Castilleja oreopola collected in Mount Rainier NP by O.D. Allen in 1897 and stored in a collection at Harvard University,. ........................................... 6 Figure 4. Peter Del Zotto and Arnie Peterson pressing specimens in the Tatoosh Range (photo by Ben Legler, UW) ............................................................................................................ 7 Figure 5. Map illustrating locations of Botany Forays. ................................................................ 8 iv Tables Page Table1. Sensitive species targeted for field surveys. ..................................................................... 5 Table 2. Summary of species verification by stage of inventory ................................................... 6 Table 3. Summary of new verifications for vascular species in Mount Rainier National Park ..... 9 Table 4. Summary of plant species in Mount Rainier by growth form and origin ........................ 9 v Abstract The vascular plant inventory for Mount Rainier National Park was conducted between 2000 and 2007. Initially, the park had a vascular plant species list of 959 species, 56% of which were verified by herbarium specimens, 39% were documented by scientific studies, and the remaining 5% were unverified but were on the list based on species ranges. Our objectives for the vascular plant inventory were: 1) improve the quality of the species verification by increasing the number voucher specimens and 2) to verify the presence of sensitive plants that were listed as occurring within the park. Data mining was the first step of the project and involved in-person and on-line searches of 9 collections. Data mining located 1,099 specimens which increased the voucher- based verifications by 14%. Field inventories of undersurveyed areas and likely habitats of sensitive species were conducted from 2004 to 2007 in partnership with the University of Washington. These Botany Forays resulted in a final vascular plant species list of 973 species, verified at the 97% level: 74% by vouchers, 23% by scientific studies, and only 3% are unverified. vi Acknowledgments I would like to thank Laurie Kurth for planning and coordinating all field surveys. Data mining was conducted by Katherine Beirne, Ronald Holmes, Brenda Cunningham, Sharon Rodman, Josh Seerup, Catherine Bruno, Arnie Peterson, and Jason Lovelady. Dr. David Giblin supervised the Botany Forays, recruiting volunteers, identifying and preparing herbarium specimens, entering all data into databases, and developing the NPS Botany Foray website. Peter Del Zotto and Ben Legler assisted in leading many of the forays and foray participants included: Arnie Peterson, Jessica Waite, Judy Runge, Megan Jensen, Richard Ramsden, Vicki Weafer, Dan Paquette, Sharon Rodman, LaraMassey, Lindsey Kopeke, Lucia Harrison, Karen Larson, Monica Delmartinii, Sarah Gage, Cindy Gentry, Erin Younger, Navina Leibow, Deanna Goldy, and Don Knoke. Lise Grace, Ronald Holmes, and Bret Christoe entered the data into the NPSpecies database. Anne Braaten and Lise Grace developed the maps used in this report, Joe Oelfke assisted with compiling the tables, and Lise Grace and Ronald Holmes assisted with the formatting of this report. vii Introduction The National Park Service's primary mission is to conserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment of this and future generations. Currently, the Service is unable to attain its mission in many parks, owing to a serious lack of scientific information about the nature and condition of resources in those parks, especially biological resources. In 1992, the National Park Service's (NPS)